Authorities in Elkridge, Md., didn’t have probable cause to search the lot around Robert Arnold Jarrett Jr.’s home after his then-wife disappeared in January 1991.

Nor could they get his permission to do so. But after he and his second wife separated, he moved elsewhere. Last month, she gave authorities permission to search the lot, reports the Tribune in an article reprinted by the Baltimore Sun.

The result was a Howard County grand jury indictment of Jarrett, now 57, for first-degree murder after authorities said they found the body of Christine Jarrett during the search, buried under a concrete slab, below the floorboards of a backyard shed.

The article doesn’t include any comment from Jarrett, who at last report was being held without bail, or his counsel.

An earlier Tribune article says Howard County detectives focused on the search after receiving a tip from an unidentified person. It also says neighbors had wondered for years why authorities weren’t looking under the shed for the missing woman.